[bloggers] Attractions of Livingston Parish

[Maitri Venkat-Ramani]

At least they didn't put it in Kiln, MS, where the GB Packer bar (The
Broke Spoke, if it is still standing after Katrina) sports stickers
that say Keep Mississippi White and has pictures of grandpappy with
his klan sheet.

Anyway.  Here's a good site that explains the science behind laser
interferometry to measure gravitational waves.

http://www.livingstonparish.com/ligo_facts.htm

Livingston, Louisiana is one of 15 global Laser Interferometer sites,
it operates in unison with a matching observatory in Hanford,
Washington.

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/relativity/gwdtable.html

Why Livingston?

"After a nationwide open competition, NSF selected sites near
Livingston, Louisiana, and at Hanford, Washington, for the LIGO
installations. The sites, which are separated by nearly 2,000 miles,
are both flat and large enough to accommodate the 4-kilometer
interferometer arms. Both are also far enough from urban development
to ensure that they are seismically and acoustically quiet, but still
within convenient distance of housing for resident and visiting staff.
NSF selected the sites after a nationwide open competition, which
included a thorough evaluation of 19 proposed LIGO sites in 17 states,
the endorsement of that evaluation by a national review panel, and an
internal NSF review.

===

This statement from a paper on determination of local and global
coordinate axes for the LIGO sites cracks me up:

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/T/T980044-10.pdf

"The alignment of the Livingston beam tube arms proceeded in a
different manner from what was done at Hanford, WA. Excellent
experience with the Beam Tube contractor in Hanford, combined with
correspondingly negative experience with the surveying contractor in
Livingston led to a decision to use the CB&I alignment database as the
primary basis for determining the best estimate of the beam tube
alignment."



On 7/9/07, Mark Folse <markfolse at rocketmail.com> wrote:
>
> I thought briefly this morning that my job might be moving to Denham
> Springs. (Groan). Turns out some gre are, but I and most of my department
> ain't.  (Cue Halleluia chorus loop with fireworks visual).
>
> While despondently counting each mile of the 1 hour, 22 minute drive on
> Google Maps earlier, I found myself looking up Killian, La. I need to drag
> my daughter up there someday for a photo.
>
> Then I discovered this, a Livingston Parish tourist attraction that perhaps
> only Matri could love:
>
> LASER INTERFEROMETER GRAVITATION WAVE OBSERVATORY
>
> I know that's right up there with visiting Killian, La. and possibly the
> National Klan Shrine (ok, I made up that last part but it is Livingston
> Parish).
>
> Who knew we had anything like this in Louisiana? I gotta get out more.